Fuel Gauge Fault - voltage stabiliser?

dmcsweeney

dmcsweeney

Active Member
Hi all, the fuel gauge on my 3500S isn't working. There seems to be no supply to the gauge (according to a friend of mine that has the car at the moment). He applied a supply to the gauge and it read correctly. I assume the voltage stabiliser has failed? Where can I get one? I'm hoping to get to the car this evening for a quick look so I'll test it myself. Would it be harmful to bypass it for a while to get the car back on the road? I asssume the gauge would read correctly with the engine off?
Regards,
Dave
 
If the voltage stabiliser is not allowing a supply to the fuel guage then it won't be sending one to the temp guage either, so does that not work as well?

If you put 12v instead of 10v it won't read correctly even without the engine running, it will read high, by about 20% I would guess, in the same way that the readings increase on both guages when you rev the engine with a faulty voltage stabiliser.
 
might be a stupid question but has the fuses been checked? normal the feed is off the same circuit as the indicators etc.

Do you have any other electrical gremlins?

Colin
 
Lads, thanks for your help. A friend of mine currently has the car so I ahven't been able to look at it myself yet. The fuel gauge never worked as long as I've owned it, however the temperature gauge was fine. The sender unit had been faulty, which was confirmed by shorting the cable at the unit to earth (full deflection on the gauge). He took the car after I'd helped fix the clutch on his, he removed the tank and removed a piece of nylon that had been causing my misfire, and fitted a replacent sender at the same time. I've called him and he said the temp gauge is fine. He said that there is a multi pin connection (circular) on the rear of the instrument cluster, and he has found that shorting out the pins in the 3 and 4 o'clock positions (looking at the front of the cluster) has resulted in a reading on the gauge. He's not keen on electrics so I'm going to have a look on thursday and trace it with a meter. I assume that this is a connection point for the supply to the temp and fuel gauges? The problem will probably prove to be a dry joint on the printed circuit.
Thanks,
Dave
 
Hi all, I've since found the cause of the problem but have not fully resolved it yet. I found that there was no output from the voltage stabiliser so I replaced it. To test the instruments I grounded the temp gauge (car was cold and i was in a hurry) and it worked. I then earthed the fuel sender cable, and nothing happened. I earthed the printed circuit at the point it meets the connection point for the loom and it worked. I metered the cable to the tank and found a break. I hadn't time to finish finding the fault, but looking at the wiring diagram there is a connection somewhere between the tank and the dash, anyone know where? I assume it is under the dash near the A-post somewhere?
Regards,
Dave
 
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